This invention relates to a vertical market and, more particularly, to a vertical market in which incentives to generate revenue are provided to those members of the market that enter into an agreement to exchange goods and services directly between each other.
A vertical market is a market that meets the needs of a particular industry; for example, a market for a piece of equipment used only by semiconductor manufacturers (as opposed to a horizontal market which is a market that meets a given need of a wide variety of industries—e.g., a market for word processing software) In some instances, the members of the market buy and sell goods indirectly to and from each other through a third party. In these instances, the members of the vertical market lose potential revenues due to transaction costs, taxes, and other associated costs. To avoid the loss of these transactional costs, agreements may be reached among the members of a vertical market in which the members agree to trade directly with each other. In agreements such as these, the potential revenues due to transaction costs, taxes, and other associated costs may be saved.
It would be desirable to incentivize the members of a vertical market to participate in an agreement among the members of the vertical market, which agreement encourages participants to deal with participants of the market agreement.